This Italian wedding soup is nothing like the one in my memory, most specifically, the one I used to devour by the Styrofoam bowlful between waiting on customers at the cafe where I worked just out of college. The soup was made with an incredibly greasy broth and filled with a million mini meatballs, a few strands of spinach and a handful of these little lentil-shaped pasta noodles. I think there may have been a few specks of diced carrots, too. Along with about a gallon of salt. It was delicious — and not good for me at all.

This lighter Italian wedding soup is nothing like that soup. Instead of greasy, salty broth, this soup is made with low-sodium broth and diced tomatoes with their juices. Instead of a million mini meatballs, this soup is made with more substantial turkey Parmesan meatballs that poach in the broth to tender perfection. Instead of a few strands of spinach, this soup is filled out with an entire bunch of curly kale. It’s all done in 30 minutes, and then you top it with more Parmesan cheese.

So yeah, this soup is nothing like that soup — it’s much, much better.

This post is the third in a short series I’ll be doing this month on the blog called “A Baker’s Dozen.” Each week, I’ll share a post with 13 (get it?) tips, tricks and/or tools to help you become a better baker (though I think you’re pretty great already). Today’s post: My top 13 tips for organizing baking supplies. Enjoy!

I am back from a week’s vacation to Jamaica and Haiti and all I can say is COOOOOLLLLLDDD. Like, 80 degrees colder than where I was just 48 hours ago. Like, takes-one’s-breath-away cold. Like, one of the windows in our house shattered because it was. so. cold., and a wall in another room has ice crystals forming on it (I’m serious). Sometimes I wonder why I live in Minnesota and not on that beautiful island beach on which I was sipping slushy drinks just mere days ago. WHY.

Alas, crazy as it may be, this is home and so here I am, waist-high in blankets and neck-high in a scarf wearing fleece-lined leggings and wool socks, writing to you from the tundra about my top 13 tips for organizing baking supplies (in small spaces!). My kitchen may be tiny, but I’ve learned over the years how to make the most of my few available cabinets, one of which is dedicated entirely to my baking supplies. Lately, another cabinet seems to be completely dedicated to my husband’s and daughter’s love of crackers and chips, but that’s another post entirely.

What I find harder to believe than the fact that I’ve never tried such a thing as saffron ice cream before making this recipe is that I’d never actually HEARD of saffron ice cream. I’d heard of pears and blue cheese, mushrooms and walnuts, soy and blueberries, sunbutter and sunflowers in ice cream — and even tried a few (that pear and blue cheese combo is from Salt & Straw in Portland and it is bonkers delicious) — but the saffron spice always eluded me in ice cream form.

Until today. And for you, too. Now we can all try this sweet saffron-infused ice cream topped with shards of roasted pistachios and know that we have tried what may be the new trend in ice cream for 2016. I’m calling it.

This post is the second in a short series I’ll be doing this month on the blog called “A Baker’s Dozen.” Each week, I’ll share a post with 13 (get it?) tips, tricks and/or tools to help you become a better baker (though I think you’re pretty great already). Today’s post: My top 13 essential baking ingredients. Enjoy!

Happy Monday, friends! Is that a contradiction: happy and Monday? I know for some of us it is. For me, it depends. If I’ve got a good week of plans ahead, we’re cool. If not, watch out. I’ve probably got a serious case of the needs-coffee/needs-sleep/needs-a-vacations. I’m sure you can empathize.

Thankfully, this week I actually AM on vacation (which, if you read my last post, comes at a good time). This is the first time since like, college, that I’ve been on a tropical vacation in January. For those of us who live in the tundra that is Minnesota or anywhere in the upper half of the country, you know this is a welcome reprieve from the cold. And henceforth, I plan to have a vacation scheduled for EVERY January of EVERY year. It’s a lofty resolution (says my wallet) but I’m going for it.

So let’s pull up a beach chair, sip on some mojitos and have a chat about my top 13 essential baking ingredients, shall we? That seems normal.

I almost didn’t post this recipe. I mean… let’s look at the photos. Ahem. Not my best work (breadsticks are REALLY REALLY not easy to photograph, you guys. Just saying).

But can you believe that there is only one other recipe for breadsticks on this blog, you know, the blog about bread? And believe it or not, the photos of those breadsticks are even worse (I’ll let you forage for that evidence if you dare).

But what we lack here in breadstick glamour shots is made up for in a recipe for garlic butter breadsticks that will blow. your. mind. And your tastebuds. That, at least, I can deliver.

Happy 2016, friends! This post is the first in a short series I’ll be doing this month on the blog called “A Baker’s Dozen.” Each week, I’ll share a post with 13 (get it?) tips, tricks and/or tools to help you become a better baker (though I think you’re pretty great already). Today’s post: My top 13 essential baking tools. Enjoy!

There have been — ahem — moments in my life as a baker when I have come to realize one of the following: a) I am using the absolute wrong tool (apologies to the challah that was burned alive by me baking it with wax paper), b) I don’t own the tool I need (apologies to the countless cookies and truffles that I’ve tried to shape and instead assaulted with unwieldy spoons and c) I have so many tools I never use (I’m looking at you, cupcake batter separator). It’s been a long and winding road of crimes committed to my baked goods by the wrong tools, the missing tools, the unnecessary tools, and I wish I could say I’ve left that life behind completely and am now in a state of complete kitchen optimization — but alas, I still have that batter separator stored away somewhere.

But I digress. Because maybe you’ve made the resolution that 2016 is your year to bake the perfect loaf of bread. Or maybe you made out like a gift card bandit at Christmas and you’re looking to invest in quality baking tools to step up your cake-baking game. Or maybe you’re just really tired of having your drawers and cabinets filled with things like batter separators and you’re finally ready to be a grownup and clean out all the clutter, all of it, the entire house, and you won’t rest until it’s all cleared and only stocked with the necessities! (My husband is reading this and shaking his head at my crazy right now.)